May 16 ‘Demand’ Driving Inflation? A Viewer Begs to Differ A complaint lodged with the PBS Ombudsman was passed along after Friday's broadcast and seemed worth answering in a public forum. "I do not understand why Paul Solman did not challenge Roberto Rigobon when he said rising prices… Continue reading
May 13 Inflation, Extremist Economics and Printing Dollars By Elizabeth Shell John Williams is an economic extremist. He thinks a collapse of the U.S. dollar and hyperinflation are just around the corner and that gold is therefore the best bet around. He thinks the government manipulates the economic data to… Continue reading
May 12 Are Taxes Lower Now Than the 1950s? By Elizabeth Shell Name: Peter Anderheggen Question: I recently heard that in 2011, the nation, on the whole, is paying substantially less in taxes than it did in the nineteen fifties. I do not know if this is true or just a spin. Continue reading
May 11 ‘Inside Job’: an Oscar Winner Answers Your Questions Editor's Note: Today we hand over question-and-answer duties to Charles Ferguson, former MIT academic and dot.com entrepreneur who is now a documentary filmmaker, and created the Academy Award-winning analysis of the Crash of '08, 'Inside Job.' Last week,… Continue reading
May 10 Old Folks at Home and the Curse of Internet Investing Name: Chris Curry Question: The Bureau of the Public Debt sent a letter to account holders of Legacy Treasury Direct notifying them that the program was being phased out (in favor of the online TreasuryDirect system) beginning May 1, 2011. Continue reading
May 09 My Least-Favorite Investment Vehicle (Except For All the Other Ones) By Elizabeth Shell Name: Will G. Knox Question: Safety of TIPs? Paul Solman: The shortest question ever received on the Business Desk demands a rather more discursive answer. As longtime readers of this page may recall, my own family's retirement fund… Continue reading
May 06 Dueling April Jobs Numbers Cloud Some Good News for Economy Once again, the monthly unemployment data give occasion for those who have hair to lose more of it. The Household Survey, from which the much-trumpeted "Unemployment number" comes, brings us a rise in official unemployment to 9 percent, due to… Continue reading
May 04 Ask Oscar-Winning ‘Inside Job’ Director Your Questions on the Financial Crisis Producer and director Charles Ferguson won an Academy Award earlier this year for "Inside Job", his documentary about the financial crisis. On Wednesday night's broadcast we'll speak to Ferguson about one of the major focuses of the film: alleged conflicts… Continue reading
May 04 A Dark Abyss of Blessing or Curse By Elizabeth Shell Name: Hillhopper Question: I just listened to a business executive on TV say that the investment he made would return in three years based on fuel savings. Why is it that people that make financial decisions are not math savvy?… Continue reading
Apr 29 The Budget Battle: WWHD? (What Would Hayek Do?) AK? (And Keynes?) Cut taxes? Hike them? Cut government? Save the safety net? These economic questions are dominating debate in DC. So we thought we'd consult two of the greatest economists of all time: What would YOU do about today's budget deficit? Friedrich… Continue reading